Recently one a friend of mine was caught up in the political infighting of two departments at her place of employment.  Accusations made by one department were really attempts to discredit the other department with my friend being caught in the cross hairs. 

 Thank goodness for Outlook and the capability to create a paper trail.  My friend was able to clearly show that the real problem was the catfight between two departments and she was the ammunition.  Isn’t it a tragedy among departments within the same business when rivalry turns into an unwillingness to collaborate and accompish the underlying objective. 

Now for the controversy. . .

It is my experience that this phenomena is most common with one of the sexes and not common at all with the other.  I will let you guess at which one is the problem.

Change is all about. It is ever present.

It is natural to react to change. The more we adapt, the more we are successful.

Understand that you choose if your reaction is positive or negative.

There may be plenty of obstacles in your way to prevent change, but rather than complain about them, embrace them.We often think that obstacles are put in our way to keep us from succeeding. I am of the mindset that obstacles are put in our way to help us grow, learn and overcome.

I was reviewing some blogs that I subscribe to and I found a posting that struck me anew. Olivier Blanchard tells us to embrace the obstacles. One of the most important lessons he teaches is the following:

When I was in the French Navy Marines, the unspoken motto, the underlying mission imperative was always “make it work.”

The intelligence is wrong? It doesn’t matter. Make it work.

The insertion routes are compromised? It doesn’t matter. Make it work.

You got dropped 15 miles off target? It doesn’t matter. Make it work.

Nobody ever had to say it. Nobody ever had to bark the order. From day one of training, it was pounded into us:

Make it work.

Make it happen.

Find a way.

If you don’t, people will die.

Embracing the obstacles in our lives will not only help us to succeed, but will allow us to understand how important change is.

There is the cliché that says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

I think that is a little wrong. While I think planning is important, it is also important to fail. In fact, I think that it is critical that you fail so that you can see success.

I think that the statement should be revised and extended to be:

If you don’t plan to fail, you will fail to plan appropriately.

Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher’s Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.

Could you imagine a right way to fail?

I wrote a post last month titled, sometimes, failure is the best option. I was thinking a little more about this today. I realized there are quite often two reasons that people fail. Oh sure, you can probably find a lot more reasons, but I believe that you can probably put every reason into these two categories.

Reason 1: As I mentioned in my other post (linked above) there are people that try to do something and fail at it. They often will learn from that mistake. Jared points out the following: “Didn’t Thomas Edison say the same thing, in other words, to the effect that when trying to develop the light bulb he didn’t fail some a thousand-odd times, he learned a thousand ways that didn’t work?”

Reason 2: People fail for lack of trying. I am amazed at how many times people throw their arms up and simply say, “it can’t be done!” Without even trying, these types of people fail before they even start. Of course they are doomed to fail. If you don’t think it will work, then of course it won’t work… you won’t put the effort into making it work.

So, why do you fail? Don’t tell me you are a success without some failure in your life? I became proficient at graphic design because I was laid off from a job. I build nice furniture for my house (my hobby is carpentry) because I have built some significantly awful furniture. I understand technology because I have failed so many times at understanding it.

One point to consider, if you fail because you try, but then never try again, does that mean you begin to fail because you throw your arms up saying, “it can’t be done?”

Don’t throw your arms up saying, “it can’t be done,” until you have actually taken the time to understand what is being asked of you. You are only limited by your imagination.

Remember, the answer is always no if you don’t ask… something will never be done if you don’t try.

Corey Smith is the Vice President of Innovation at Fisher’s Document Systems where he maintains a blog on business and technology.

I was speaking with a business owner a few days ago that claimed he new everything about human resource compliance and risk management as a result of working for a certain big box retailer for five years. Never mind the fact that the industry he now works in is completely unrelated and that he didn’t actually work in the Human Resource department. To be frank, when I meet with a business owner that thinks he knows everything I try not to meet with them again.

Many people, as a result of the internet and their ability to get information so quickly place themselves at the top of their trusted advisor list. WebMD has unofficially granted medical degrees to thousands of individuals who will confidently contradict their human doctor’s medical advice. Business degrees are now self-awarded after several diligent research sessions online. Industry experts, people who have spent a lifetime learning their particular trade, are being told they’re wrong by folks that “looked it up online� and now know more then they do.

In contradiction to this, the most brilliant business people I’ve ever met are those that freely admit that they don’t know everything. These men and women have what seems like a knack for hiring competent people who compliment their skill sets and round out the management team. They defer decisions to the people with expertise in that area and trust their decisions. These are the people that all of us like to work for and that most of us aspire to be like.

I attended a keynote speech by Rich Sloan – Co-founder of Startup Nation – on Wednesday night. Rich spoke of seven key points for small business to remember. One of his points “Outsourcing is in� stood out to me. Not only because my business interests are in outsourcing, but because the company I work for has outsourced several functions to companies that execute them better than we do.

Beyond simply knowing more about these functional areas, companies that specialize often have buying power, economies of scale and scope and are able to save business owners time and money. The ability to save businesses money in these areas is further amplified when considering the opportunity cost of doing it yourself.

The truth is that all business owners outsource something. Legal council, accounting services, marketing support and several others immediately come to mind.

Most small business owners I’ve met don’t have time to learn the tax code or all the laws associated with employment unless that is their core business. The bottom line for them is the bottom line and time spent away from improving that is time wasted.

Success or Failure?

Do you have to fail before you succeed?

Do you have to see success in order to understand failure?

What do you think?

Years ago Bill Gates got up at a conference and said that one good programmer is better than 1000 bad ones. Why? Well lets look at what has become of Microsoft in less than thirty years. They have 44 billion dollars in the bank. That is enough money to buy the entire airline industry twice. The market must respond to the movement, products, and direction of Microsoft. Right now, most of you reading this blog are reading it with the aid of Bill.

In your efforts to find and keep the best people there is a two step process that needs to be followed for success. Continue Reading »

In a famous book on negotiation one principle taught is to take the other person’s argument and turn it into your strength. This strategy comes from the martial art Jujitsu. In this art the momentum of your opponent is turned into your power.

Managing people is a similar proposition. Find their strength and use it. Too many individuals try and make the wrong people fit into the wrong roles. I once had an employee that spent years of his life as a successful door to door salesman. I brought him into the office and gave him a phone to be successful. I noticed that whenever a person came into the office, he was able to build relationships quickly and make a sale. This didn’t happen when he was on the phone.

Take a person’s momentum and use it, channel it, feed it. Then you will excel as a small business.